This document summarizes an interview with Englund Talbert, a speech language pathologist for Guilford County Schools in Greensboro, NC. Some key points from the interview include: Ms. Talbert feels that compassion, kindness, intelligence and a desire to help others are important qualities for success in the field. She has a Master's Degree in Speech Language Pathology and completed a Clinical Fellowship Year internship. She finds child development, neurology and linguistics to be important areas of knowledge. She chose this career because she wanted to work in different settings and with a variety of patients each day.

1. Interviewer: Elizabeth Cox
Interviewee: Englund Talbert
Title: Speech Language Pathologist
Place of Employment: Guilford County Schools (Greensboro, NC)
Date of Interview: Monday March 28, 2016 1:30 PM
1. What personal qualities or abilities are important to being successful as a speech
pathologist?
 Experience in speech pathology and a love for this kind of work is very
important. Specific qualities I find most important are compassion, kindness,
intelligence and a desire to help others.
2. What type of training or education is required to become a speech pathologist?
 You need a Master’s Degree in Speech Language Pathology followed by 9
months of CFY or Clinical Fellowship Year, basically a paid internship.
3. What areas of knowledge do you find most important for working in this field?
 Child development, neurology, and linguistics
4. Why did you choose speech pathology?
 I wanted to be a teacher, possibly a social-education teacher but I didn’t want
the salary cap of a teacher. I also wanted the option to work in a variety of
settings even throughout the day. I am lucky enough to work in a different
school every single day and I wouldn’t have gotten that as a teacher.
5. How did you get this position in which you currently are working?
 After moving to Greensboro I applied and went through the hiring process.
Schools are usually in high need of SLP’s so it made it easier for me to get this
job.
6. What are typical hiring procedures?
 The hiring process is similar to most other jobs. A typical procedure would
require you to turn in your resume, meet for an interview, and if you meet the
criteria you will get the job. I haven’t encountered a hiring process different than
that thus far.
7. What challenges did you face when trying tofind a job in this field?
 I never did. I’ve worked in 3 settings and I’ve yet to have a real interview. Either
they knew me and/or they were so needy that my resume met the qualifications
and that was enough. It’s been pretty easy for me!
8. If you were starting out in this career again, would you doanything differently?
 I definitely went into grad school with a lot less knowledge than I needed. The
catch up was intimidating. They definitely allow for those coming in without
communication disorders as an undergrad major. However, there were only 11
in my grad school program, and everyone else had a speech language
background except for me. Because of this I felt like I was constantly behind. I
would say I would go into grad school with greater knowledge of the tests they
use to assess people with disorders. I was very unfamiliar with these and they
would throw out terms that I had never heard before. I loved my grad school

2. (UNC) and wouldn’t have gone anywhere else but I would’ve come in with more
significant prior knowledge of this field if I were to do it again.
9. What do you do on a typical day as a speech pathologist?
 I see 10-15 students for therapy either individually or as a group. During this
therapy I do 1-2 quick screenings in their area of concern, which varies by the
student. These areas include language, articulation, fluency, etc. and I use a
different screening process for each. I work for the county so I am normally in a
different school every day. Most SLPs that work in a school setting stay within
the same school every day but I never have and I like it better this way. They pay
me for travel time so I normally schedule students in the same school on the
same days so I am not traveling to multiple schools per day.
10. How many hours do you typically work each week?
 My hours follow a school schedule so per week I work 37.5 hours but there is a
lot of outside work involved!
11. What part of this job do you find the most challenging?
 Educating the parents of stutterers is very challenging because they just want
you to fix it and stuttering is something that is not very easy to fix it. The attitude
of wanting to fix it perpetuates the behavior in the child. The child becomes
more anxious about talking and realizes that they are doing something their
parent is not proud of, it just becomes a vicious cycle that is hard to break.
12. What part of this job do you find the most satisfying?
 Helping people become better in areas they struggle and making more confident
communicators.
13. Is there a demand for people in this occupation?
 Yes absolutely in all settings.
14. What setting would you prefer to work in as a speech pathologist? (i.e. school, private
practice, hospital, etc.)
 School, I’ve never worked in a hospital other than an internship and never
worked in a nursing home. I’ve had no desire to work with older people because
of my love for children. A school has more perks too!
15. What is unique about being a speech pathologist?
 This is one of the few jobs that allows you to work in so many different types of
settings. You can be with kids in a school or elderly people in a nursing home,
there are so many options.
16. Do you see jobs in this field changing in the future? If so, why?
 Yes, I think coverage issues and changes with Medicaid and Medicare will have
an effect on this field. I’m not really sure how the field will change but I definitely
think it will in this regard.
17. What special advice would you give a person entering this field?
 Just to really dive in to every experience you are offered in grad school. There
are so many areas of speech and so many of them are specialty areas. I have a
friend who specializes in fluency, which is great, but I don’t think she would
know what to do with a patient suffering from a swallowing disorder. When you

3. get your first job outside of grad school you will really start zoning in to a specific
area. So until then soak up as much as you can so you will have knowledge in all
areas of speech not just your specialty area.